In recent years, the typical rectangular bale of hay has been steadily replaced by spirally wrapped round or cylindrical bales, which do not require as much of the costly binding materials and precision forming machinery that the rectangular bales require. However, these round bales are much heavier than the traditional rectangular bales and therefore require strong and durable machines to transport and feed them. Typically, these large round bales are transported to storage during the summer and are then transported in the winter from the storage area for access by the animals which feed upon the hay.
While there are many prior art devices which relate to transporting and feeding such large round bales, they have numerous disadvantages. For example, many of these prior art devices are not easily maneuverable, are very complicated and costly to manufacture and are not durable. Moreover, many of these prior art devices are not versatile since they merely are capable of either transporting or feeding the round bales but not both. Some of these devices can handle only one or two bales at a time, do not self-load and use brute force to tear and shred the bales, all resulting in an inefficient use of fuel.
Examples of such prior art devices are found in the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,779,208--Gay PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,595--Edelman PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,956--Hostetler PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,765--Hostetler PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,140--McFarland PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,967--Guichon PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,454--Priefert PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,072,241--Parker et al. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,428--White et al. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,794--Shaw PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,234--Wells PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,253--Ralston et al. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,958--Vahlkamp et al. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,789--Parks, Jr. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,790--Baxter
In addition, French Pat. No. 2,271,868 to Rabaud discloses a round bale handling machine.